Even if you haven’t heard of Michael Göbel before, perhaps you’ve encountered his software. A prolific worker, Michael’s been building an impressive portfolio of applications over the last few years.
Like all developers, he now faces the new challenges of selling via the Mac App Store, and today sent out an email to customers explaining his plans for the future.
Here’s a fun little hack. It combines the convenience of digital music with the tactile pleasure of browsing through someone’s music collection and having something physical to pick up and look at. Flickr fella bertrandom put it together in his spare time.
Each plastic disk represents an album or a playlist. Inside each one there’s a RFID tag. To play it, put the disk on the cardboard box turntable, in which there’s an RFID reader connected to a computer. The music starts immediately.
Of course, you might argue that if you’re going to have a shelfload of plastic disks, you may as well just have a shelfload of CDs, which is perfectly retro enough for some people. But where would the fun be in that?
AppCleaner is a freeware utility for deleting software from your Mac.
As you might expect, the new App Store manages software updates in a manner very similar to the iOS Store you’ll be familiar with if you use an iDevice.
If there are updates available for any of your installed applications, the Updates icon in the toolbar will sport a numbered icon telling you how many, as shown above.
To install the updates, just go to the Updates tab and click the UPDATE button:
During the update, you’ll see a little progress bar in situ, telling you when things are downloading and when they’re installing. If you previously removed the app from your Dock when it installed from the App Store, it won’t be re-added to the Dock by the installation process.
There’s still some confusion regarding the new Mac App Store, and how it works with applications you already own.
The App Store software tries hard to spot which applications you already have installed, but it doesn’t always get this right.
The result is that sometimes the Store will show you an “Installed” icon, but sometimes it won’t even when it ought to. In which case, it will offer you the chance to buy an app, even if you already own it.
As far as I can see, there are several likely scenarios…
I just tried a quick Mac App Store experiment.
One of the more tempting offerings on offer there is TextWrangler, the excellent all-purpose text editor from Bare Bones software. It’s been free on the web for years, and now it’s free on the store.
I already had a copy installed, but on closer inspection, my existing version was 3.1, and the one in the App Store was 3.5. What would happen, I wondered, if I clicked the “Install” button? Would the App Store version be installed separately? Would there be some kind of conflict? Or would it Just Work?
I’ve just spent some time poking around the shiny new Mac App Store and there’s only one feature I expected to see, but can’t: an official way to uninstall what you’ve installed.
The traditional way of removing apps does still work. Go to the Applications folder, select the app, and move it to the Trash.
With any other application, that’s it, job done. But with apps installed via the App Store, you are asked for your system password before the trashing can commence.
I’m not complaining, and I don’t think this is a particularly big deal. But I did expect to see some kind of Uninstall control available somewhere (perhaps on the page that lists all your purchases), and as far as I can see, there isn’t one. Not yet, anyway. I suspect this is something that will be fixed in a future update.
Got your App Store installed yet? What do you make of it? Is this the future?
The team at Realmac Software – makers of apps like LittleSnapper and RapidWeaver, among others – have posted their thoughts about what changes the Mac App Store may bring.
Lower prices is one. Perhaps not as low as we’ve seen for iOS, but certainly lower than many developers charge right now. The old argument applies: Apple is creating a marketplace that didn’t exist before. That’s why it takes its 30% cut, and why the overall volume of sales should increase (hopefully).
Another prediction is simpler apps that do, ahem, one thing well. Complicated do-everything applications are hard to put into categories, and hard to explain to customers in the limited space available on a typical App Store page. Apps that just do a single job are easier to understand in an instant, and therefore easier to sell.
That said, it’s important to remember that the Mac App Store is, for now at least, just one way to get software installed on your Mac. Developers will be free to sell their wares via their own websites using traditional methods. There’s going to be a transition period where software is bought and sold both ways. The question everyone’s asking is: how long will that period last? Years? Months?
If you develop for OS X, do you agree with Realmac’s thoughts? Are you planning to reduce prices, and re-focus your apps for selling in the App Store? Do you think the App Store is going to completely take over, and how long will that take?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
(Via One Thing Well.)
In a pre-Christmas post, we asked Cult of Mac readers to vote for their favorite new Mac OS X app of 2010. As usual, by “new” we mean a brand new app, or a major update to an old app, that’s been released during the previous 12 months.
This years winner, by a considerable margin, was email client Postbox 2.
For those of you who’ve not tried it, Postbox is a feature-packed email client which combines some of the best ideas from web-based email and local email services. It’s an excellent tool for people who live and die by email, and who manage a large volume of messages across many different accounts.
Other apps that got a lot of mentions included Alfred, Sparrow and Reeder.
Thanks to everyone who contributed their comments. I’m already looking forward to all the new treasures we might discover during 2011 – and the new means we will have to discover them, the Mac App Store, which should be live in just a few hours from now.
So, you were a very good boy or girl this year and Santa brought you a brand new Mac.
Maybe it was a sleek MacBook Air, perhaps a studly MacBook Pro or a bright and shiny iMac for your desktop. You say it was an old-school Mac Pro workstation? Well, bully for you!
Isn’t it time to make a few resolutions about how you’re going to love and care for your new machine so you can get the most out of it and keep it running in tip-top shape long after your Apple Care subscription runs out?
Here are five suggestions to help you do just that:
1. Have a back-up plan.
The number one mistake made by 99% of the people who wake up one day with an empty feeling in the pit of their stomach as they realize all their photographs, all their music, all their software and the outline for that Oscar-winning screenplay are just…gone — is having no backup.
Fortunately (or unfortunately), Apple has left you no excuse for not having your data backed up, at least since the introduction of Time Capsule and its integration with Time Machine, a built-in backup solution that’s been part of OX X since 2007.
A 1 terabyte Time Capsule is only $299 and unless you are one of those Pirate Bay or LimeWire scofflaws you’re probably never going to fill it up.
Don’t want to pay the Apple premium for seamless integration and “Designed in California” panache? Dozens of excellent third-party backup solutions await from the likes of LaCie and Seagate — there’s even an eco-friendly Green solution from Hitachi subsidiary SimpleTech, the USB 2.0 [Re]Drive, made from bamboo and recycled aluminum.
Regular backups for your computer system are like roughage in your diet: just do it and you’ll never never be sorry you did.
Apple’s passing out Christmas gifts early for Mac and iOS developers. The company is offering six development books covering Mac OS X and iOS development — for free.
The new eBooks aren’t really new, but they haven’t been available in the iBookstore until today. Previously developers could either read them online or download PDF versions to read later via developer.apple.com.
The six titles include: Cocoa Fundamental’s Guide, The Objective-C Programming Language, iOS Application Programming Guide, Object Oriented Programming With Objective-C, iOS Technology Overview, and iOS Human Interface Guidelines.
You can download these books to your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad from the iBookstore.
In the immortal spirit of Nigel Tufnel, our 2010 Year in Review of the best in Audio gear and apps for Mac and iOS devices goes to 11.
If you missed any of these or didn’t get a chance to check them out for some reason or another, don’t fret — they each should be around to help you discover dulcet tones and make sound memories for a long time to come.
11. iDJ – iPad Music App ($9.99)
iDJ’s music management system is a simple, streamlined way to quickly build club-quality playlists using the music in your iTunes library. With patented BPM detection technology, iDJ fuses your music together with the finesse of a professional mixmaster. As you add songs, iDJ analyzes their sonic-waveforms, calculates tempos, and then automatically performs optimal transitions throughout the playlist. Playlists can contain an unlimited number of songs and iDJ supports audio in WAV, MP3, and AAC formats. Plus, your iDJ library can be managed through iTunes. iDJ is the first true music-mixing application for iPad that both beginners and professionals can enjoy.
Around this time every year we ask you, our lovely Cult readers, to tell us which new OS X desktop applications have caught your eye over the last 12 months.
Last year’s winners (by a hair) were Google Chrome and OmmWriter.
What do we mean by “new”? Ideally, we mean brand new applications that were launched for the first time this year. But we’re prepared to be flexible, so “new” can also mean major updates to existing apps. And don’t forget, we’re talking OS X desktop apps here, not iOS apps.
A few suggestions to get you started: Scrivener 2, Postbox, Office 2011, iLife 11, iTunes 10, Reeder, Kiwi, Transmit 4, Lightroom 3… the list is long.
The comments box is yours. Tell us what new software you loved most in 2010. The application with the most mentions is declared the winner, and will be featured in a follow-up post next week.
Apple has just issued a press release saying that the Mac App Store will open for downloads on January 6 2011.
“The Mac App Store will be available in 90 countries at launch and will feature paid and free apps in categories like Education, Games, Graphics & Design, Lifestyle, Productivity and Utilities.”
I have a feeling some developers aren’t going to get much rest over the Christmas break this year…
Hazel is software genius. It’s one of those tools that looks so simple to start with, but after a while, you realise just how powerful and flexible it could be.
Skitch, the screenshot and image editor that’s been in beta since the day your parents were born (OK, since 2007), has finally reached 1.0.
If you’ve not tried Skitch before, now’s a good time to give it a spin. The emphasis is definitely on screenshots – taking them, and adding text, arrows, annotations and other fun stuff. It’s an app much beloved by writers of Mac blogs, who’ve made much use of it over the years for making quick-and-easy illustrations for their posts. Guilty as charged, Your Honour.
The deal with Skitch 1.0 is simple: you can still use the app for free if you like (“YAY!” cry the Mac bloggers), but if you shell out about $15 a year, you can get all sorts of sexy extras like no ads, more image formats, SSL encryption and more more more.
(Via delicious Brett at TUAW, oh yeah.)
Smoking Apples has published a lovely post extolling the virtues of an ancient iBook G4, which given a little TLC and a wipe-and-install has been reborn as a perfectly functional household computer.
The Swiftmouse is an innovation from New Zealand that aims to offer a decent mousing experience in a very small unit.
In that, they’ve certainly succeeded. Swiftmouse is absolutely tiny. measuring just two inches from front to back, an inch and a half tall, and the same distance across.
Tiny, but sculpted. The contours of the mouse have been carefully designed to fit the tips of your curved fingers, so that it nestles in place. Despite its size, it feels comfortable to hold in the hand and is well weighted.
The guys at Evernote have just unveiled some new goodies in Evernote 2.0 Beta for Mac.
First up is sharing, and this includes some sweet new features. You can share any notebook, either with named individuals or with the entire world. These public notebooks have a URL (which you can keep to yourself, or tell the world – and search engines – about), and an RSS feed.
Software bundles are a great way to get lots of apps for cheaps, but quite often you end up paying for apps you have no need of and no interest in.
That’s where Give Good Food to Your Mac is different. In a style similar to the MacBundles we mentioned a couple of weeks ago, the Good Food deal is flexible.
You get to browse the list of apps on offer and pick out the ones you like the look of. The more you buy, the better the deal and the more money you save overall. Buy more than seven applications and you get 60 per cent off.
There’s a decent selection of apps on offer including lots of games. The store closes on December 10th. Happy bundle shopping.
Over at his site The Brooks Review (which has been publishing a lot of good stuff recently), Ben Brooks wrote up his thoughts on a variety of writing applications for Mac OS X.
Here’s a secret: OS X has a password generator built-in, but many people will never even see it. Here’s how to make it easier to get to.
It’s natural to assume that iTunes is a monolithic one-window application, because there’s no obvious way to view your vast database of music, videos and apps in anything other than just that one window.
No obvious way, but it is there.
Here’s the link to the Apple Support document describing the update and how to get it.
10.6.5 promises increased performance in playing well with Microsoft Exchange, better image processing with iPhoto and Aperture, adds SSL support for transferring files with iDisk, resolves an issue syncing Address Book with Google, allows systems with a Mac Pro RAID Card (Early 2009) to be put to sleep, and adds RAW image compatibility for additional digital cameras — among other things.
See the full support document for details.
A few days ago, computer company Sophos released a free anti-virus application for OS X.
According to the experts at Sophos, your Mac is vulnerable to malware – it’s just that there isn’t very much of it around. Yet.
But as Macs and OS X get more popular, that might change. So Sophos thinks it’s time you protected your computer.
So what does Sophos Anti-Virus for OS X do, exactly?
